Black Ink
by Precious Pup
Summary: McGee declares his love for Abby in an unusual way. Some angst, mostly romance. Dedicated to Lady Aracne who put up with many chapters of my McGiva fic, Waiting. McAbby all the way
1. Chapter 1

Timothy McGee sighed in the soft darkness as he rolled over in the bed to watch Abby sleep. A sliver of moonlight pierced between the thick velvet curtains she had drawn over the windows making her pale soft skin seem to glow. Her long black hair tumbled against the silk pillows and she breathed deep and contented, happy in her dreams.

It almost made him weep that she was so close, close enough to touch but she was still too far away for him to be happy. He loved her and while she willingly gave him everything she could freely give to him, her body and her mind, her heart lay untouched.

And it was her heart that he wanted most.

He knew he was drunk. He knew that Abby was drunk otherwise she wouldn't have asked him to come back with her after meeting the team after work for drinks. When she was sober she knew it hurt him too much to be with her in this way, even though he craved it with his very soul. To touch her warm naked body with his hands as she lay free of her lab coat, collars and chains. He saw her truly underneath her protective layer and gloried in her strength, intelligence and vulnerability.

He didn't know whether to weep or pull her close to him and fall asleep with her scent flavoring in his dreams. He couldn't seem to escape her although he had tried. He wasn't free to love another because he already knew who he wanted and how perfect it could be between them. And yet they weren't together and he couldn't accept what she could offer him because it was hollow. Sex with respect and friendship but not love. Joyful conversation and teasing interaction but with no plan for a future.

Tim lay awake, the room slowly spinning around him as he contemplated how yet again he had been helpless to her advances. Her full red lips, her unique scent of gunpowder and roses, her beautiful eyes full of delight. He had promised himself after the last time that he wouldn't do this again.

To have all and yet nothing tasted like ashes in his mouth and it was slowly killing the pleasure they genuinely had in each others company. It had taken weeks after the last time he had made love to her before he could laugh freely with her in the lab again and watch her walk out the door at the end of the day for another date with a faceless man.

If only she could understand what he truly felt. To love her would be a freedom not a sentence. He could then just let himself go and they could soar together. Every time he had tried to talk to her about it she had looked at him like he was trying to cage her or deny some part of her its freedom. She would become angry and defensive and wouldn't speak to him or she would twist his words until he hated the very sound of them.

So he would come to her silent. As he must. But it was a silence so loud he was amazed she didn't feel the ringing in her ears or see the dust breaking free of the mortar that bound them trailing him as he walked.

If only he had the words. The right words. Like a spell, an incantation. If he could put the right words together at the right time then he could be like Merlin the wizard and the locks around her heart would tumble free and she could be his.

And how he ached for her to be his.

But that was surely the fancy of a drunken mind. The pen mightier than the sword?

But no. This was the last time he would go through this agony again. He would tell her how he felt about her before all the words in his head slowly drowned him. But he would tell her silently so she didn't have to hear his words.

Abby murmured in her deep sleep as she felt Tim's kisses and gentle sweeping caresses on her naked body. She knew it was him and continued in her sleep feeling safe in his adoration. Timothy.

Abby awoke in the morning with a smile on her face. She contemplated last night and suddenly was awash in sorrow. She shouldn't have done it. Why did she turn to him when she knew what pain it brought him? He was almost helpless in his love for her and she felt almost cruel for offering herself up to him again.

Once she wouldn't have though much of it. Two consenting adults achieving physical release with each other. Something simple in a world that was often crazy. The fact that they were trusted friends made it even better.

But she had seen that look in his eyes again as he made love to her. And that's what it was for him. It wasn't sex. He made love to her, body mind and soul. Perhaps that was why she turned to him when her own barriers were down. For an experience that couldn't be replicated with anyone else.

Although she had tried.

Abby held back her sigh and turned over in the bed to see if she could repair some of the damage she had done to their friendship.

"Oh Timothy!" Abby gasped as she saw him passed out naked on the other side of her large bed, tears still wet on his smooth cheeks. He looked so vulnerable as he lay curled in on himself as if to try and hold in the pain. She reached for him to see what he was grasping so tightly in his fist. She sat up and pried it gently out of his fingers and stared at it in the dim light.

A black marker pen.

Abby's attention was suddenly drawn down to her bare body as she remembered the gentle feathery touches of her dreams last night and she drew in her breath.

He had marked her all over. Her entire body was covered in his words as he made her his. Abby flung back the covers and stared at herself made unfamiliar.

There wasn't a spot on her body that he had left untouched. She stood in amazement and stood in front of the mirror. He had turned her into a living canvas for his poetry. Poetry of his love for her.

She stared at the beautiful scrolling script running across her slightly rounded belly as he declared his desire for her to carry a child for him. A child with her boldness and desire for life.

He had written the chemical equation for star dust between her breasts where he liked to lay his head before falling asleep and declared he would love her till he too turned to dust and was returned to the stars.

He had written a poem about sweet kisses down her neck and trailed it down her back. He declared how the taste of her haunted him along her left inner thigh and how he admired her strength and conviction down her right.

He had told her how he did not want to shackle her with obligations by winding it around her ankle and had drawn a bird soaring free on her calf.

He had traced around his hand on her hip and told her how he felt when he got to hold her in his arms, away from the world and free of convention and expectation. How she had freed him and his heart with her laughter.

Words, single words, poetry, whole chapters soaked her skin. Adoration, love, trust, desire, beauty, faith, passion, fidelity marked her in black ink.

Abby felt the tears running down her face at his passion as she slowly absorbed his words and feelings as she slowly turned and read herself. Some of the words made her laugh. The back of her left arm had his thoughts from when they first met all those years ago for their lunch date and his butt had still been sore from the tattoo artist's needle. And then she was crying again as she read down the back of her right arm. Pleasure and pain she had always been to him but he would have it no other way as she made him feel like no other in the world.

Abby had spent years slowly claiming herself with her body art and Tim had taken a night to claim her with his words.

She heard Tim stir on the bed and didn't move from the mirror as he stood and flushing with embarrassment walked up behind her.

"Why Tim"" Abby asked softly, tears streaking her face and spiking her eyelashes.

"I don't know. You never like to hear my words and I thought that maybe….. if you knew. If you really knew how I felt about you that….. you might somehow love me too."

He stood sorrowful and bereft and Abby felt her heart break free from the safe place she had firmly secured it at the great love this amazing man offered her.

With a shuddering breath she turned and threw herself into his arms and burst into tears.

"I'm so sorry I didn't mean to be horrible to you all this time. You are everything and more than I could ever deserve to ask for." Abby mumbled into his neck as her tears feel hot and wet against his shoulder.

Tim just closed his eyes and held her tight in his arms as they rocked slowly together while Abby sobbed releasing her fears.

Tim lifted her chin. "Hey it's ok. I …."

"I love you Timothy McGee." Abby looked up at him with adoring tear stained eyes and Tim's heart almost burst. He stood and just looked at her in amazement.

"Really?"

"Really truly, always." She reached for him and they kissed, long and slow as the joy flooding through them made a mockery of any happiness they had previously shared. She could truly be free in this mans arms.

"Tim please? Let me make Love to you." Abby held his hand and drew him back to her bed. And this time there would be only the sweetness and not the sorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

"Abby?"

"Hummmm" Abby contentedly purred as she felt Tim's hands wash her all over with the large soft soapy sponge. They had been in the shower together for what felt like an eternity and were probably dangerously close to running out of hot water but Abby didn't care. Tim had placed kisses all down her neck and shoulders and had adoringly shampooed and rinsed her long tresses clean. Now he was patiently trying to remove the glorious black ink he had worked all over her body during the night.

"Abby? It's not coming off. The ink I mean. Some of its smearing a little but it doesn't seem to want to come off. I think it might have been a permanent marker"

Tim sounded anxious and Abby just smiled and turned to kiss him warm, soapy and naked in his arms.

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((99

"Oh Abby I'm so sorry." Tim looked sorrowfully down at Abby stretched out face down on the bed still gloriously naked and still covered in his poetry.

Abby turned her head and smiled up at him with both her full mouth and her dancing green eyes. "There is nothing to be sorry for Timmy! I love that I'm a living canvas. I'm unique. A Timothy McGee original. I could pose nude in the Louvre on black velvet and thousands would praise you as an artist."

Tim smirked "More like thousands would come to see you naked."

Abby fluttered her eyelashes "Timothy you always know just what to say to a girl"

Tim smiled back at her. In the cold light of the morning complete with rather savage hangover he had been rather alarmed at the results of his actions. What had seemed romantic and impassioned the previous night seemed a little creepy to him this morning.

Not that he didn't love the results. Abby had opened herself up to him like a rose bud seeking the morning light and he couldn't resist pinching himself when they had talked and held and worshipped each other for hours after she had drawn him back to her bed.

Tim didn't know whether to be embarrassed of his actions or proud of his daring. He had really marked her all over. In what turned out to be black _Permanent_ Marker.

But then again. This was Abby. This was a woman who had been nearly run over in a living room by an ex on her own Harley Davidson. A woman who picked up men in cemeteries, dressed in leather and lace, played with voodoo dolls and talked to machines.

"Still, Abby…" Tim chewed his lip as he considered just how much ink needed to come off before they both returned to work tomorrow.

"Timmy" Abby sat up and placed a warning finger on his lips halting his apology.

"Don't you go turning all McGee on me now, not when you have me wrapped around your little finger" Then she smiled at him softening her gaze before she flopped back face down on the bed.

"Ok so do it. Where should we start?"

Tim picked up the bottle of nail polish remover and carefully tipped some out onto a soft cotton wool ball.

"I don't know Abby. This stuff is pretty strong." Tim wrinkled his nose at the astringent smell.

Abby reassured him again "It will be fine Tim. It's just a form of alcohol. Besides we have already tried everything else."

Tim looked down at her long pale legs and slowly, gently ran his hand down the back of her smooth thigh as Abby shivered under his touch.

"Your skin is so delicate though. I mean sunlight is too harsh for it. It would be like brushing the fresh morning dew from a velvety new rose petal and pouring Draino over it instead." Tim sighed and then was startled as Abby sat up again and swept him into her arms and kissed him soundly.

Tim pulled back breathless "What was that for?"

Abby threw back her head and laughed delighted at his honest confusion "You really are clueless and gorgeous and wonderful all at the same time. Do you know that?"

Tim smiled goofily back at her. Abby kissed him again on the nose before returning once again to her position on the bed

"We really should get started you know. At this rate it's going to take us the rest of the day. Okay so first I want you to read to me what you wrote before you wipe it away. "

Tim squirmed a bit embarrassed "You want me to read it to you first?"

Abby smiled into her pillow "Of course I do. I want to make sure your gift to me is duly appreciated first before it is erased."

"Ahh ok." Tim honestly didn't remember all of what he wrote and considered that it probably wasn't very good. High on emotion and low on technique.

"Alright well I will start at your neck and work my way down."

Abby sighed "Yes start with the poem about the kisses. I couldn't read it all, I had to twist around too much to see it"

"Right then well" Tim cleared his throat and blushed but continued bravely on.

"_I could sleep and dream on your mouth,_

_Sing and die there, again and again_

_That mouth, deep harbor_

_For a night's lodging after a long journey, reaching it,_

_Yet still longing to reach it……_

_They're battles – our kisses_

_Heavy, slow, hurtful_

_Where blood, voice and memory all take part_

_Oh how jealous I am of the Caf pow you drink_

_And of the words you speak_

_Of your deep sighs…_

_Jealous of those unjust partings-_

_Of our mouths_

_Longing am I for your sweet kiss…."_

Abby sighed and wriggled, stretching down to her very toes like a cat arching under a beloved hand.

"Oh Timothy, that was beautiful. It must stay. You couldn't possibly wipe that off"

Tim battled between smiling that she liked his poem so much and frowning that he couldn't remove it.

"Abby, it runs all the way down your back. I have to take at least some of it off?"

"No Timothy. It stays. Besides it's my back. No one but you will see it and it will simply wear off eventually anyway. No you can take off something else instead."

Tim peered at what he had written in a rolling curving hand in black across the gentle curve of her pale rump.

"What about….. _I'm like a harp –quiet, until you come and draw your hand across my strings. Then the music of my heart sings out. I am dazed by my love for you_?

Abby shook her head firmly into the pillow "No it stays. It makes me think of the look you get when I run my hand down your chest. All sort of dizzy and.."

"But Abby?"

"Stays"

Tim frowned "Alright, roll over and let's see what else I can take off"

Abby rolled over and saucily winked at Tim as his gaze fell on her soft breasts and he blushed again.

Tim prepared his cotton wool again as the alcohol had already evaporated. He smiled to himself as he read his declaration he had written between her curved breasts

_I will love you till I too turn to dust and join the stars._

"Ok I will take this bit off then."

Abby suddenly sat up aghast "Oh No Timmy not that bit. That's one of the best bits."

Tim frowned at Abby again. This could seriously take all day. Tim considered and chewed on his full bottom lip thoughtfully.

"Alright what about this then? I will leave the chemical equation bit to remind you of what was there and I will wipe away the rest. AND….. I will give you a kiss when I'm done."

Abby fought to keep the smile from her face "Are you negotiating with me Timmy?"

Tim smiled that little slightly lop sided smile that made her stomach turn over.

"Well yes I suppose I am"

Abby smiled cheekily back "Will it be an I have joined the stars sort of a kiss?"

Tim tried to smoother his smile and tried to look optimistically hopeful instead "Well I can try?"

Abby pursed her lips and closed her eyes waiting for him to kiss her. Instead she gasped as he quickly swiped the alcohol soaked cotton between her breasts, the rapid evaporation chilling her skin. She opened her eyes and true to his word he had left the equation and had uncovered more of her pale skin. Tim leaned down and gently kissed the chill skin revealed with his warm soft lips.

Abby moaned quietly to herself at the sensation before Tim caught her mouth with his, laid her back against the pillows and kissed her as if she truly was his safe harbor.

After a lifetime Abby fluttered open her eyes and smiled at Tim as he leaned over her, smiling a little at her response.

"Umm Timmy, I think I'm going to enjoy this."

(

(Thank you to all those that reviewed the first chapter and helped encourage this follow up. I hope you enjoy this too. Credit on most of the peom goes to Michelle Lovric and her book How to write Love Letters. The rest is mine)


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